Hadaka "Rainy & Cold" Matsuri

So today was the Hadaka Matsuri which takes place in Ohara. My buddy and I went and thought it would be fun to check out what I've been looking forward to since I found out about my placement....when the people carrying around the portable shrines go into the ocean. Apparently it's tradition for the people to carry around the portable shrines and go into the ocean as part of a "cleansing" process to the Gods in Japan.

So we went to the festival and walked up and down a street outside of my buddy's house to check out different food stands and things. It looked pretty ominous outside in the morning....black clouds hovering and covering the sky. I figured it would rain but didn't think it would be too bad. But....it turned out being typhoon like conditions...

It rained, and rained, and rained......AND RAINED!! And it still is! It was also extremely windy and actually COLD! I never thought I'd say that about Japan! It was a nice cool off, but it sucked that it was on a holiday and during the matsuri!

But definitely an interesting day...at the food vendors, I got lots of different food. I had a crepe, okonomiyaki, grilled chicken, takoyaki, ice cream, and a chocolate covered banana. Now with the chocolate covered banana, we could play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to win more or get the minimum of 1 banana...which of course is paid for when I paid the 200 yen. I thought my strategy through real carefully, and thought about opening with paper. But I figured that paper is what a lot of people open with and I'm sure the vendor thought that too. So I thought about opening with paper but at the last minute decided to stick with "rock."

VICTORY!!! Haha, the vendor opened with scissors....and so I won an extra chocolate covered banana! Alright, it's the small things in life that make it interesting, but I was really happy when I won!

Alright, more posts to come...I have to get you all caught up with what else has been going on since school started!